11/11/11

Cake balls, cake pops, cake thingees-- I am now ok with them. Before I hated them. Remember when I made these midori cape pops? Yeah, those were hard to make! Hard to make the first time around, and even the second time around. Patience grasshopper; that was what my mind was telling me--have patience. First time around I did not have any patience and maybe got 4 to 6 good cake balls for a photo. Whew! Yes, out of like 50 cake balls I got 4 to 6 good ones--bad, very bad. Don't get me wrong they tasted wonderful, but were fugly. Instead of being cake pops they were cake nuggets! Hubby didn't care, they popped in his mouth like popcorn. And I swear each time I saw him eat one I would cringe thinking 'do you know how long it took me to dip that one? No, that one was even worse to dip! I can't watch!' Since I was so disappointed in myself I gave them a second go without realizing why I had failed in the first place. So naturally the second time around failed--again. Retracing my steps like a detective from Law & Order: Special Cake Pops edition I realized that I did not let the cake pops set up in the freezer long enough; I was letting them set up in the fridge. They need to be a bit firm, not frozen, before you dip them in the chocolate bath that makes everything fall off the stick. LOL! I also found that using milk chocolate as opposed to candy melts makes a much nicer dipping process. AND the taste of pure chocolate tastes way better than candy melts. But that's just me. If you do decide to use milk chocolate instead of candy melts remember the milk chocolate will have a thicker shell than the candy melts.

If you're new to making cake pops or cake balls make sure to visit bakerella.com. She is the queen supreme of all things cake pop. She has a whole section of just cake pops, and if memory serves correct her first cake pop post was in 2008? She's certainly come a long way since then. Now she even hasmuppet pops (check out the Beaker pops!), kidney pops, and tea pop party! Glad to also hear that her health is on the mend and life is good for her. Congrats to you. How she gets her cake pops so perfectly round is still a mystery to me, but for now I love my lumpy cake pops.

Your photos of these cake pops just make me smile. I've never tried these, so I'm thankful to you for going through the multiple failed attempts so I can seem like a hero to whomever I bake them for. I agree about the chocolate vs those nasty candy melts...great job!

I have fought the trend. Even though my kids would go nuts over them, I just can't do it. I'd choose your fugly ones, with real chocolate, over the cute ones any way. (And yours are not really fugly - they are real.)

Appearance isn't everything, though it sure makes us feel better when slaving in the kitchen produces a show-stopping product, right?

I don't add the stick--just do cake balls/bon bons. I use two forks to coat them with the chocolate, and yes, only real chocolate in my kitchen! I kinda wanna try a toasted coconut one... or white cake with mini chocolate chips coated in white chocolate. I've done the chocolate mint, and they're awesome!

Dawn, I can't wait to try these. And congratulations on your Vanilla Sugar Blog being chosen as the Blog of the Month on the Facebook Page of NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto US.

I was wondering if you could accomplish more round/uniform balls for the pops by using a small ice cream scoop to form them -do you think that would work? Also I was wondering if any of your readers have used the Pop Pan to bake the balls in -and then dip them in the chocolate after cooled? My imagination is trying to think about adding in the Cream Cheese Frosting if you did use a pop pan - I would imagine that it would just make the batter too thin and maybe not have the same fudgy taste and consistency as just baking the cake and adding the frosting after crumbling it up. Maybe not a good idea????

augusta:doesn't really matter how perfect you roll the cake balls before dipping; what matters (if you want really round balls after dipping) is to dip them perfectly. So you have to be super fast when dipping them in the chocolate bath.

Oh wows dis bees the gud stuffs. I bin aweigh from ur blog thing for a bits, and I jes took a looks at it again and you haves the kewelst stuffs....dis cake pops loks guud!!!! Dis be cheep ta make twoo.....yo you is a sheen genies in da kitshen....

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com